Two killed in P51 crash

The pilot and passenger departed on a flight near Galveston, Texas, in a North American P51D, a vintage warbird.

After departure, radar tracked the flight along a bay in a southwestern direction.

A witness reported that he heard the airplane overhead heading south and then saw it slowly turn north and appear to descend at a high rate of speed before it hit the water.

The airplane was largely fragmented upon impact and both the passenger and pilot were killed.

The flight was recorded by an onboard video recording system. A review of the video revealed that, a few minutes into the flight, the pilot asked the passenger if he’d like to fly the airplane. The passenger replied he was not a pilot, but he’d like to try it.

The video showed that, with the passenger at the controls, the airplane steeply banked right to about 90°, and the nose dropped; the pilot explained that back pressure was needed on the stick during turns to prevent the loss of lift.

The conversation continued as the airplane was rolling to wings level and as the pilot was encouraging the passenger to pull back on the stick. During this time, the video showed the airplane descending toward the water. Neither the pilot nor passenger acknowledged the impending collision.

It is likely that the pilot’s focused attention on instructing the passenger contributed to his lack of recognition of the impending collision. It could not be determined if the water’s smooth surface contributed to the pilot’s loss of situational awareness.

The NTSB determined the probable cause as the pilot’s loss of situational awareness while instructing the passenger, which resulted in the controlled flight of the airplane into the water.

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Comments

Why don’t pilots just let the second party follow them through the basic manoeuvres initially? I have never flown a P-51 either but I am a pilot. I have time in turbine twins with more power and I am also tail-wheel proficient as it was my initial training 40 years ago. The gages aren’t that great. One needs to keep the head outside looking around instead of taking pictures of passenger. Attitude flying not instrument flying

Because it takes an average time of 18 months for the NTSB to conclude its investigation and reach a probable conclusion, we run accidents from two years ago to ensure the investigation is completed. We believe there is value to be learned in these reports.

While a smooth water surface can definitely interfere with a pilot’s depth perception (been there done that), it can’t interfere with scanning instruments as any pilot should be doing under such circumstances to ensure against getting too low. The presence of a non-rated passenger who required close attention from the PIC on handling the high performance P-51 definitely would be distracting and presumably enough in this case to interfere with basic instrument scan. Sounds as if the PIC was obliged to give control to the pax who had paid for the privilege to include a film record of the flight.

I agree with your comments. Distraction is a deadly disease. The pilot seemed distracted earlier in the flight as well, when he missed or failed to understand some of the comments from his passenger (had to ask the pax to repeat).